Who will work the garden so the weeds won’t take over?

“And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. — Luke 10:2(NAS)

By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.

While contemplating the future plans for my backyard garden, I noticed how the weeds had overgrown some areas and yet other areas were not so overrun. Some vegetables were able to muscle their way through the killer-like spider web created by overrun uneatable vegetation.

The tomatoes, bell peppers, collard greens and the carrots were still doing well and not bothered by the weeds. The frail and delicate lettuce of several varieties gave way to the hearty wild flowers. These wild flowers could fool the average person into thinking just that- that they were wild flowers.

Even though they added some unique and distinct beauty, these weeds-unlike dandelion greens or rabbit tobacco-were not good for human consumption because they skunked on flavor and I’m sure they would not settle too well on the stomach.

So, now I toyed with the notion of having a mix use garden, if it could work for re-gentrification I thought that weeds and vegetables could coexist, unlike humans.

Humans would instead try to assimilate into what they perceived as the right race.

Unfortunately, we have allowed this form of a subculture to infiltrate into our culture and it has begun to eat away at our very core.

We no longer want to be associated with what is considered Black. Like my garden, if unchecked, the weeds will take over and the identity of what once was a garden that produces food for consumption now is a bed of weeds fit for nothing but aggravation.

I thought about how we are leaving our children’s lives uncontrolled and deseeded with viable sources for survival.

We do not, on a habitual basis check to see if our own plants (children) are thriving in the jungle of weeds (anything that will shorten their lives to include all that feels good).

Here of late, I have been inspired to try and understand how it is okay for one race of people to never let the history of their people be forgotten, never mind how awful and painful it was. We are a magnificent people who have overcome in-surmountable odds just to be alive. Now here we are running like firemen to a hospital fully engulfedin flames to strip our-selves of any reminders of who we are and where we come from.

Just like the weeds in my garden that sprang up from the lack of attention, so has this slow death choke that has gripped the throats of our own to strangle the last drop of respect for our Blackness from ever being associated with.

I am now in the process of weeding and fertilizing my garden in preparation for a bountiful harvest of fresh, nutritional and tasty vegetables. This cannot be achieved unless I take the time to spend some time in the garden.

I do understand and accept the fact that I plant and work the fields but it is God who gives the increase.

“Dear God we have come through the weeds of sins because You came into our garden and took over. Please God help us to never allow the weeds to take over and choke our identity from us, Amen.”